Monday, June 23, 2014

SUNNI AND BAATHIST UPRISING

‘Whilst the instability in Iraq has connections to the Syrian conflict next door, and many individuals who fought for Isis in Syria are now present in Iraq, the Iraqi insurgency is more acutely focused on solving the problems of Iraq’s fractured polity than it is the goals of more radical Islamic groups.’

‘In a recent interview with the Daily Telegraph, member of the Batta tribe and leader of the Islamic Army of Iraq Sheikh Ahmad al Dabash stated: “All the Sunni tribes have come out against (Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri) Maliki.’

“There are parts of the military, Baathists from the time of Saddam Hussein, clerics, everyone (who) came out for the oppression that we have been suffering,” he added.’

‘To dismiss what is happening in Iraq as the product of the maniacal whims of a few radical fanatics is to ignore the very real social inequality that exists in Iraq.

Travelling around the country in recent days, I have been shocked at the levels of deprivation that some of Iraq’s citizens have endured.’

‘The grouping of fighters that has swept through Iraq to within 60km (40 miles) of the capital is not a nihilistic jihadist group hell bent on the establishment of an Islamic caliphate.’

‘It is a more general uprising by large groupings of disaffected communities throughout north-western Iraq and a product of years of social exclusion, poor governance and corruption by the Iraqi government.’